England were absolutely terrible - but there would be no point getting rid of Capello yet, by Mark Lawrenson

By Mark Lawrenson in Mirror Football Blog

Published 23:00 18/11/10

England-France-Andy-Carroll-James-Milner cropped

Fabio Capello should have been sacked after this summer's World Cup.

Now, England are left to play a long and rather embarrassing end game with Capello simply just treading water, picking up his £6m-a-year salary and waiting for the Euro 2012 finals.

There’s a huge clamour among the fans for Capello to be sacked and yet the FA have tied themselves up in knots with a crazy contract.

Most other nations hand out two-year contracts to their managers. If the FA had done that, then they would not be in this appalling mess.

Sadly, the FA were exposed as being horribly naive. They were played like a fiddle. And, worst of all, do they really not think that if Capello wanted to quit and take a club job, he wouldn't do it anyway?

Maybe it’s because we have such naive people making decisions that deeper problems have been allowed to take over and cause even bigger issues within English football.

Quite apart from the gulf in class between England and France at Wembley on Wednesday, there are much bigger differences between the two nations.

We’re not talking about the way Laurent Blanc has taken a French squad in disarray, re-shaped them and got them playing great football with five forwards in a line-up full of pace, movement and imagination.

Although, do compare that to England. It was Anglo Saxon. While France’s players looked calm and excellent even when under pressure, England’s were all too happy to just smash the ball forward when closed down.

And that’s not just about one off-night, it’s about a different football philosophy built from educating players the right way.

France have Clairefontaine, turning their young players into men and educating them in technique from an early age.

We have the shell, the wasteland and the wasted opportunity that is the national football centre at Burton.

I feel for Sir Trevor Brooking in that regard because he’s been banging on about this for ages.

Building work on the national football centre is to begin in January after the FA board approved plans today.

We now find ourselves light years behind France.

Look at France, a team in disarray under Raymond Domenech at the World Cup.

But Blanc takes over, inherits a team full of technically gifted players, changes the line-up and suddenly all their problems in South Africa seem a distant memory.

What do England do? They look at a squad bereft of a depth of quality.

Of the team that played against France, only three - Steven Gerrard, Rio Ferdinand and James Milner - are likely starters in the next Euro 2012 qualifier. Gareth Barry certainly shouldn’t start on current form.

Capello has players who, in the main, are not comfortable in possession. They hoof it under pressure. Also, their football education hasn’t included lessons on discipline and living the right way to get the best from a career.

England have a wonderful stadium. Wembley is a great facility, even the pitch has got better, and yet it’s been to the detriment of the national team.

All the money has gone there and not to Burton. Nice stadium, shame about the team.

Everyone knows Capello is going after Euro 2012. His mistake was going public on it. Now it looks as if it can’t come soon enough.